No Discrimination Against Foreign Students... Busan Office of Education Provides 'Temporary Childcare Support Fund'

Foreign National Students and Out-of-School Children Also to Receive 200,000 KRW for Elementary and 150,000 KRW for Middle School

Busan Metropolitan Office of Education. (Photo by Busan Office of Education)

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] The Busan Metropolitan Office of Education (Superintendent Kim Seok-jun) is providing the ‘Temporary Childcare Support Fund’ to foreign-nationality elementary and middle school students as well as out-of-school children of foreign nationality to alleviate difficulties caused by COVID-19.

The support targets foreign-nationality students enrolled in general elementary and middle schools and out-of-school children of the same school age with foreign nationality. Here, out-of-school children refer to those attending foreign schools and unlicensed alternative education facilities.

The number of beneficiaries this time is a total of 571, including 363 foreign-nationality elementary and middle school students (252 elementary, 111 middle) and 208 out-of-school children of foreign nationality (148 elementary, 60 middle).

Support funds have already been provided or are being provided to elementary and middle school students with Korean nationality and out-of-school children of the same school age.

The Office of Education is spending 105.65 million KRW from its own budget to provide 200,000 KRW each as special childcare support funds to foreign-nationality elementary school students and out-of-school children of the same school age.

Foreign-nationality middle school students and out-of-school children of the same school age will receive 150,000 KRW each as non-face-to-face learning support funds.

The support funds will be paid by transferring to the students’ (children’s) school banking accounts from late October to early November. If school banking is not used, the funds will be deposited into the accounts of the students (children) or their guardians.

By October 8, the Office of Education had provided 200,000 KRW each to elementary students and 150,000 KRW each to middle school students among 227,697 elementary and middle school students with Korean nationality in the Busan area.

Applications for support funds for 1,250 out-of-school children with Korean nationality have already closed, and payments of 200,000 KRW for elementary school age and 150,000 KRW for middle school age will be completed by early November.

Kim Seok-jun, Superintendent of Busan Metropolitan Office of Education, said, “Foreign-nationality students and children should not be discriminated against,” and added, “We will do our best to support foreign-nationality students so that they can grow up healthily as members of society.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.